Well I had a good experience with Kelly at Estes Automotive in Birmingham Alabama. Two Saturdays ago I was cruising around in my Dakota with cold A/C blowing. I had a very enjoyable time. Sunday I pulled her out for antoher drive and the compressor would not turn on. I found a big mess where one of the hoses blew out.

http://autoachoserepair.com/

kelly@estesauto.com


Now my options were to find an NOS hose or after market replacement. No NOS ones were to be found. I could only get one replacement hose and it was not the one I needed. So I started the google search. A/C hose repair brought up two websites. That night I took pictures of the hoses and sent them off to both companies. Kelly with Estes Automotive was the first to reply with a price and the correct answer that my hoses could be repaired.







I sent them out Wednesday and they got them on Friday.

 

Well after stripping the paint off of them this morning this is how they look. I cleaned the rust off of them tonight and they are ready for paint tomorrow morning.

 

This is how they make the repairs.

BRAZE-ON FITTING REPAIR PROCEDURE

Verify Fitting Orientation (Fitting Clock Position) Before Starting.



1
Cut Tube






3
Cut Hose Clean and Square.


4
Install Ferrule & Hose.


5
Center The Wide Opening At 90° Or 270° (3 o’Clock Or 9 o’Clock) As Shown.

 

I got mine all cleaned up and painted today. Glad I stayed with the stock looking ends and just had the hoses replaced.

 

Looks pretty good. I'm not sure I understand why they needed to braze anything on. Most of the time you can remove the original crimp and hose, and the barb should be still on the tube

I sure am distressed to see Ma is still using those stupid flange connectors, expecially the one with only one bolt hole. I once had an 86 Dodge 600 (car, not truck) and never did get one flange to completely seal.

 

I am not to happy with the design either. But I do like cold A/C. I like the new o-ring style sealing hoses. They did give me all new seals for each connection also. The prior hose was suitable for R-12. I am pretty sure the new synthetic R-134a ate a hole in the hose. I will put them back on tonight and put the system under a vacuum. Braze instead of just a new crimp ferrel? I think the new hose inside diameter is different. Look close at the original hoses.

 

be sure to blow out the evaporator, and condensor. plus flushout the a/c compressor while you at it. also there are a few oriellys that make a/c hoses.you just have to cut the collar off of the old hoses and reuse you end fittings.

 

A/C compressor is brand new with 100 miles on it. It was just a hose failure. When I got the new compressor on I flushed out the entire system with A/C flush. I have a new drier that I installed. I will blow out the hoses once more before I install them.

 

ok but the reason i said to flus it out was to make sure there wasn't any hose material from the failure point in the compressor.

 

If you are in texas, let me know you Air United Mechanical provides your high class AC Repair services have a look. it might be helpful for you. thanks

 

Agree X2. I'm not an expert on the parts available for automotive AC, but when was in commercial HVAC, it was routine to install filters in the suction line on a compressor change, where the old compressor (or in this case hoses) might have introduced debri or contaminants into the system.

Back when I was in auto parts, the shop guy and I developed a similar method for power steering hoses. We stocked and sold a large array of industrial / tractor hydraulic hoses and fittings. This was before Weatherhead or others had come out with the hose ends / compression fittings to repair tube ends (06U-756, etc)

I took a JIC (AN) flare adapter, sawed off one end, countersunk a hole the size of the tube, and we brazed it onto the original tube end of a bad PS hose. Then just a simple matter of making up a hose with a common JIC hose end to fit.

Hell we made hundreds of those. Of course they don't quite look factory, so not the thing for "restore correct."

 

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